The Verdict.

"Sist…" the voice got stuck in his throat, and his memory of yesterday poured a bucket full of icy water on him.

"Aiden!" Arya, on the other hand, couldn't believe what she was seeing. She ran towards him and embraced the confused Aiden in her arms.

The little brother who was head-shorter was now on the same height as her. Even if it was virtual space, she didn't hesitate to check the body of her little brother for any abnormalities. After all, she hadn't seen him for over three months.

"Are you okay?" Her face was full of concern, but Aiden stood there dumbfounded. He wasn't sure whether she was her sister or that impostor again.

However, when the door opened again and the bald man walked in, he didn't hesitate to hug her back. And it was Aiden's turn to be concerned about her.

"Are you okay? They didn't do anything to you, right?"

"What are you talking about? Didn't you send them to me?" Arya frowned. However, in a second, Aiden realized what had taken a few moments for his sister to understand.

He was quick to shield her and looked at the bald man. In anger, his voice was louder as he shouted, "what do you want?"

"Don't you know about it already?" The smile never left his face, "but is it all right to talk here?"

Aiden had no problem understanding what he meant. He turned to Arya and said, "it's okay, sister, just give me some time to talk to him."

"Are you sure of that?" Arya, on the other hand, wasn't convinced at all. She asked, "Do you know him?"

'No.' Aiden wanted to say it, but thinking that it would make Arya more worried, he nodded. "It's okay. It is just small talk. It will be over soon."

"No, it is not okay. You are lying." Aiden knew very well that his sister could be very stubborn from time to time, but what made him happy was she always thought of him before her. "Would you like me to stay with you?"

Aiden shook his head as he smiled at her, not realizing that the smile seemed sad in his sister's eyes. She grabbed his hand and said, "You don't have to worry about me, just do what you have to do. I will always believe you."

And his body was no longer under his control and hugged her tight. The resistance in his eyes faded as tears trickled down his cheeks. He kept muttering in her ear, "I am sorry. I am sorry."

Arya said nothing. She bit her lips and endured the pain that spread from her heart and gently caressed his back.

Aiden didn't know how long they had stayed like this, but when he moved, he didn't dare to look into her eyes. He looked up at the tasteless virtual roof and said, "I am okay, I am all right."

Arya just grabbed his hand and nodded without saying a word.

"It's going to be alright, Sister. Everything will be alright." Aiden nodded his head as he was trying to make himself believe that it would be. "Just you wait outside. I will have just a quick chat with him. It will be okay."

For this moment, Aiden didn't dare to meet her eyes, neither did she force him. She nodded and left through the door without a single word.

"So what did you decide?" It was only then that Aiden remembered that the bald man was standing there throughout the entire ordeal, without saying a single word.

"Who are you?" In Aiden's eyes, there was no fear, nor there was anger. For some reason he was calm.

And the bald man felt that he couldn't see through Aiden's expression. Yet he smiled and said, "I am the one who can make your decision into reality."

"Don't beat around the bushes." Aiden frowned as said, "Are you a director or someone under a councilman?"

"I am a councilman." Observing the smile of the man's face, the frown on Aiden's face deepened. Looking at his face, Aiden was having a hard time believing that the man in front of him was telling the truth.

While the man observed Aiden, he couldn't help himself and broke into laughter. "See, even if I tell you the truth, you won't believe me at all. So, Let's move onto the proper topic. What have you decided?"

Aiden answered with another question, "what is your actual motive? It is not like the Earth mission, where you'll select rejected children from the high-ranking family for publicity and send them to Earth on a life and death excursion with some half-assessed military training."

Aiden had observed no change on the man's face as he continued, "I don't think you are sending me there just to kill me grandly, neither…"

"Don't worry, you're not worth that much." The smile was still there, but Aiden felt that the air around him had changed.

"That is why I'm asking. Why do you want to send me rather than a well-trained soldier?"

The bald man shook his head and said, "A soldier is good at attacking, defending or surviving in a battlefield. However, you are expert at surviving, especially in this kind of situation."

Without giving Aiden any chance to continue, he said, "within six days of reaching Earth, you have lost the ability to cultivate. Yet you could kill a level 3 mage."

"Alex had also lost his ability to gather mana."

"You killed a few B-graded beasts."

"I wasn't alone."

"When others ran from an A-graded beast, you became a friend to an S grade monster."

"I was lucky."

"Then I also want to use that luck." The man shook his head and said, "But what I want from you is the determination to destroy one's dantian to save one's life, and the courage to run around the forest without the ability to cultivate."

"Do you know how many times I could have died?"

"Yet you survived and came back." With a lengthy sigh, he added, "Let's not waste any more time. I want you to go there and make a database of the unknown monsters. Find the reason for their sudden appearance and help to restore the lost post if possible."

"You want to make a database of a dozen beasts? And fight those monsters to win back a post? Huh! Do you think I'm some kind of hero?"

"A dozen?" The bald man looked at him with amusement, and said, "Let's talk about it when you agree to accept the proposal. As for the post, I leave the decision making on you."

After finding that it didn't convince Aiden, he chose a different tactic."They told you they will punish you for five years in prison, right? Then work on the planet for four years."

"Four years?" Aiden mumbled his words, and the man continued to entice Aiden.

"Yes, I will give you missions like those on earth. I will award you credit points too. And when the time comes, all the awards that you will collect on this mission and missions on Earth will be given back to you. How does it sound?"

"What about my family?" For Aiden, it was his major concern. He didn't want his family to become a pawn again.

"Ahh! Let them be under the care of Lucas, okay?" However, the more conditions the man accepted, the more concerned he became.

"But why are you helping me? You will not get anything out of it, even if I'm going to that place. Then why do you want me to go there? Is that a detention camp or something? Do you want me to get there so you can silence me with little effort?"

It stunned the man for a moment, but his thunderous laughter was resonating in the virtual space at the next moment. "Why do I need to go an extra length to kill you? Do you think that they will let you live in prison for five years?" He shook his head and said, "You are more naive than I thought."

"I accept." Aiden ignored his expression and continued, "But I have two conditions."

It shocked the bald man for a moment. He didn't understand what changed Aiden's mind in a blink, but he didn't dare to waste the chance, "Let me hear it."

"First, I won't stay there for one day more after four years, and after I get back to Planet Will, neither you nor the federation will ever force me to do something like this again."

"What again? I am not even forcing you now."

Aiden had no intention to play with words any more. He said, "The second thing I want to do is to give my family all my credit before I go there."

"That!" it looked like he was thinking deeply, "that will be hard. How can I do that? It's not even the equal exchange. I..."

He didn't finish his words when Aiden raised two fingers and said, "Two missions. I will let you know the details of two missions. No more."

With those words, his eyes brightened up, and he didn't even try to hide it. "No, let's do one. Otherwise, it won't be an equal exchange."

Again, his words stunned Aiden. 'What the hell this man is thinking? What does he want?' No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't understand why someone from the upper echelon wanted to help him, other than to get the mission data. 'Yet, now he's giving up on the chance to do that!'

The bald man, on the other hand, ignored his thought and said, "One will be more than enough, but I will decide on the mission."

'Can it be that this has been his goal all along?' Aiden couldn't give up on the possibility. All he could do was inquire about the mission he wanted to know about.

"Tell me about the cultivation technique they use on Earth." said the man with a radiant smile on his face.

***********

3 days later. Aiden's Trial.

"The first officer, Aiden Law, is guilty of murdering the ex-captain Alex..."

Aiden looked around as the host beside him continued to read. Things didn't change much around the room. The only difference was Lucas.

After talking to the bald man, everything went back to normal. He could get in touch with his family and Lucas again. Within two days, they transferred both his family and his sister to the stronghold where Lucas was stationed.

"... because of the effort of First Officer Aiden during the Earth Exploration Mission, the council has pardoned of the death sentence. However, he won't receive any rewards he has earned during the mission."

That much Aiden had expected. Even if the host had said that his father has already informed him about 2.3 billion credits have been transferred to his account.

"Not everything could be done in the light." That is how the bald man explained it to him two days ago.

"...Aiden Law will be subjected to four years of service to the Federation Army at an undisclosed location for four years. Furthermore, any leave during his service period will be denied."

The meeting room turned silent. None of them spoke. There were smiles on the faces of some. Lucas was silent and his face was still expressionless, while Sachi looked a little worried. But most of them didn't care.

Yet Aiden's eyes were stuck to the three silhouettes sitting in the darkness of the last row.

'Which one of them could it be?' Aiden couldn't help but wonder. It was then that the host read out the last line beside him.

"Aiden Law will be taken into custody within a week before being transferred to his designated post."

"How the hell is that even possible?" In the moment of surprise, Aiden failed to control his voice.

The host, beside him, smiled and said, "you need not worry about that. You just need to be ready when the time comes."

Even if he had said that Aiden couldn't believe it. Even at warp speed 8, it would take about 11 months to reach Will from Earth. And they had only been travelling from Earth for a month.

There is no way that a ship, from Planet Will, could reach their ship within one week. It's impossible unless they have some kind of technology…

Thinking about it, Aiden instinctively looked at the fading body of the last council member, besides the empty chairs. Aiden felt that the man waved at him before his entire body faded without a trace.